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Dries' keynote yesterday was great, as usual.  I'm impressed with him, with his unassuming, quiet manner.  He's not the sort of guy who you expect to be leading such a large organization. 

I remember a question I overheard at a previous Drupalcon -- what happens when something better than PHP for coding comes along?  Would that really mean the beginning of the end for Drupal?  

The Challenge: A client web site that relies on the Node Gallery module to present a wide selection of project portfolio image galleries, that also needs to present those images in a sensible way on mobile devices. 

In my specific case, the built-in node gallery display is working just fine for the display on the main web site, but it's hopelessly broken in the mobile display.  Since my drupal skills are stronger than my ability to convince my clients that they don't need a site that functions on mobile devices, I need to come up with a display that will work in the mobile environment.  

The Solution: It's Drupal, babe.  Piece of Cake. 

With the education-focused sites I'm building these days, it has been very difficult to deliver a site that does not provide some sort of WYSIWYG editor for the end user. Users want to be able to use the same sort of tools they have in Microsoft Word, and if they can't, they aren't going to be comfortable in the new web site.  

So you’re building a site for a client — it’s a pretty typical, nothing special site, a little theme work to keep it from being totally boring and to make sure you feel like you’ve earned your fees . . . And then the client asks the difficult question:

“This site is going to be customized for mobile devices, isn’t it?”

Yesterday was Day 2 of the Lullabot Rock Solid Drupal training -- and day 3 is about to start. It's been a heady collection of serious tools that a dabbler like me hasn't really had a reason to work with before, but it's very impressive to see.  

One of the things that sets folks running high-powered sites apart is that they avoid using any sort of GUI (graphic user interface) on their production servers -- all of the memory and processor power used to make pretty windows and check boxes can be better used to deliver web pages to users, after all.  

Image handling is one of those things that it's easy to not think hard enough about, but that your users will expect to be able to add to their nodes and their experience working with them will have a dramatic impact on a user's experience with your site. It's a far thornier issue than you may think.

I've had my head rammed neck deep into a big pile of stuff I barely understand for the past couple of days, trying to get my head around the challenges of displaying video on a web site, especially video that can be viewed on the end user's iphone and ipad. 

Drupal does a lot of things very well, but right out of the box it can put users through a pretty dramatic learning curve.  Creating content, jargon-y controls, and other little things will give users who are uncomfortable at the computer palpitations.  I've learned the hard way that I always need to be looking for ways to take the confusion out of the interface for my users. The simpler I can make the forms, the more likely my users are to be able to use them. 

For the past several weeks I've been working with an intern from one of the local community colleges.  It's been a terrific experience -- at least for me, and I'm hoping that he's getting some good ideas and experience out of the process.